Page 140 of Marrying the Billionaire Single Dad

"Motherfucker." I slam my fist into the table and the coffee slips over the sides of our mugs. "We need to do something about this. Need to track down whoever is the brains behind this. The asspricks turned our lives upside down with the incident and now... This?" I crack my neck. "The day I get my hands on whoever is behind this," I take a deep breath then let it out, "I am going to kill the bastard."

He smiles grimly, "Get in line. At any rate, the shooter's going down for a long time for what he did."

"And the link to the Mafia? Are the police aware of it?"

He shakes his head. "Our pact on that stays in place. We keep the cops out of it and go after the Mafia ourselves. I've taken it on myself to spearhead the efforts, and by the way, you're welcome."

"For what?" I crack my knuckles, "It's about time you pulled your weight on this."

He gapes at me, "Seriously? After everything I've done for you, that's all you have to say?"

I laugh. "What else do you want me to do, kiss your feet?"

"A thanks about now would not be remiss, you wanker." He stares at me, then takes a sip of his own coffee. "At least, I can’t fault your taste in this stuff." He swallows another mouthful. "You still buying that fancy Colombian coffee?

"Nope." I stare at him. "This one’s Black Ivory. You know, the coffee they make from the beans that Thai elephants shit out?"

He gags, "What the fuck?" He slaps the cup on the island. "You’re shitting me."

"That was the elephant shitting, actually," I retort.

He stares at me. I hold his gaze for a full second before I chuckle.

"Asshole," he growls. "Apparently, your sense of humor is still intact." He reaches for his cup of coffee, then thinks better of it. "Now that you’ve had your fun and games, ol’ chap—"

"My fun and games, is it?" I growl. "You’re the one who came into my house and proceeded to rough me up." I touch my nose—which had, thankfully, stopped bleeding after the shower and after the icepack I’d applied to it—and wince.

"Someone had to do it." He chuckles.

"No doubt, you were the first in line," I grumble. "What about the rest of the Seven?"

"What about them?" He shrugs, "They know the two of us have a special bond, considering—"

"Considering when we were kidnapped the bastards had us beat the shit out of each other on every possible occasion, until only one of us was left standing? Yeah." I roll my shoulders. "We survived it, though."

"Did we?" He stares across the table at me. "Sometimes I wonder how we would have turned out if we hadn’t been kidnapped."

"And I wonder how it would have been if Riley hadn’t died."

He starts, then takes in my features.

"I know… Hell, we all know how tough it’s been for you since you lost your daughter, but that’s no excuse for what you did to Julia."

I squeeze my eyes shut.

"You need to get your shit together and make it up to her."

"Don’t tell me what I have to do to get my woman back," I snap.

"Someone has to. Considering you’ve got the attention of the entire media. For a man who’s not even on social media, you sure manage to grab the headlines."

"Might have something to do with the fact that I recounted an annulment instead of a tête-à-tête with my newly-married bride at the much-delayed press conference that finally took place at the hospital." Yeah, I’d done that.

He laughs. "You have balls. I’ll give you that. You faced them, told them the truth, misguided as it was."

"Fuckers wanted a scandal. They got it." I raise my shoulders. Fuck, if I care what the media wrote about me… But since I have their attention... I have them primed for what is going to come next. I am going to use them to get back the one thing that matters to me the most.

"Give Karina my thanks for helping out with the cops." I nod at him.